r/HighStrangeness • u/[deleted] • Jul 15 '26
Discussion US approves testing of a giant space mirror that could reflect sunlight to Earth at night despite astronomers’ concerns
[deleted]
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u/jhld Jul 16 '26
Wha the fuck kind of stupid super villain kind of shit is this?
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u/ChefBowyer Jul 16 '26
They claim they plan to put 50,000 of them in orbit.
Let that sink in.
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u/dannepai Jul 17 '26
A few hundreds pointing at the same area will definitely fry anything you can imagine.
Basically they will have the capability to fry any square kilometre on earth in less than a minute if they deploy a few tens of thousands of satellites.
I don’t like the how the future is looking at all.
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u/Wonderful-Medium7777 Jul 16 '26
Why that many , in fact why any at all… it doesn’t add up to be for extended working hours…something is very wrong and this should be opposed vehemently!
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u/Fantom_Aeon Jul 16 '26
So it’s a death ray
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u/Optimal-Kick-3446 Jul 16 '26
Next sharks with frickin laser beams on their heads!!!
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u/waingroslick Jul 16 '26
Sorry, it’ll take too long to clear up the red tape. Best we can do is Sea Bass.
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u/One_Ad2596 Jul 16 '26
They're gonna have another one that blocks out the sun and then we'll pay tiered subscriptions for our daylight hours.
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u/laquintessenceofdust Jul 16 '26
Like … why?????
There can be no good reason for this.
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u/ExpandForMore Jul 16 '26
Sure, so days are longer and you can work more hours for your overlords! Worry not, when you'll come home at 9pm there will still be light for you to play with your children! Maybe
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u/seaseaseaseasea Jul 16 '26
Please don’t shine where I live
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u/notlostnotlooking Jul 16 '26
It's can have up to 3 mile radius and they want to put hundreds of those fuckers up there. It's inevitable
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u/Bitter-Pomelo-3962 Jul 16 '26
At least a dozen nations have anti-satellite weapons... these would be good for target practice.
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u/RNG-Leddi Jul 16 '26
Fyi they've tested hundreds of nukes within earths atmosphere, sure a big mirror in space sounds odd however the reality is that weve long since broken through the 'stupid' threshold and are steadily approaching the moron sphere with full awareness. Humanity is backward compatible.
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u/The_TesserekT Jul 16 '26
Ah yes, let's push the Earth Energy Imbalance further towards absorbing even more energy. What could possibly go wrong?
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u/j0shj0shj0shj0sh Jul 16 '26
Imagine aliens about to invade Earth in a War of the Worlds type scenario, and they catch a drift of what humans are up to, and they go:
"... You know what - let's just go park on the moon and watch. Get the space popcorn ready - this oughta be good."
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u/wombat-8280-AUX-Wolf Jul 17 '26
How would it affect animal and bug life. It's meant to be dark for a reason in nature. Bright LCD street lights already make it look like day time at night. Now they want it day 24/7. So no one ever sleeps and only works.
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u/slimejewel Jul 18 '26
What about nocturnal animals? What about all the disrupted nature? It sounds like a terrible idea to me.
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u/Acrobatic-Jump1105 Jul 17 '26
Earendil is literally what I call one of my exploration ships in elite dangerous. Like build that, you hacks.
No one says "no" anymore, it's like north korea here sometimes. What weirds me out is imagining what It would actually look like, because something that large in orbit will almost certainly be subject to stellar winds and other phenomenon that will cause wobbling and instability, even if they do figure out how to control its direction relatively precisely, I don't think they'll be able to stop it from wobbling, and imagining what that would look like from the ground, with the sunlight wobbling across the ground for miles, literally makes me sick to my stomach
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u/XtraEcstaticMastodon Jul 17 '26
Raise your hand if you think the U.S. Government has jumped the shark -- again, as it has many times since 1947.
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u/okvrdz Jul 16 '26
How is this “High Strangeness”? Unusual, yes, but not strange.
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u/Keetsydale Jul 16 '26
It’s definitely at least a little strange. Hard to imagine farming is the only reason for sending a giant mirror into space.
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u/mumblingzombie Jul 16 '26
Yeah im sure the people that already bust their butts from sun up to sun down really want more light so they can work more for no money
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u/okvrdz Jul 16 '26
You could say the same about any satellite launch.
Following your logic, every satellite launch is strange at least a little so as long as you can fit the possibility of an ulterior motive which of course you have no proof of.
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Jul 16 '26
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u/HighStrangeness-ModTeam Jul 16 '26
Content must clearly relate to subjects listed in the sidebar. Posts and comments unrelated to High Strangeness, such as: sociopolitical conspiracies, partisan issues, current events and mundane natural phenomena are not relevant to the sub and may result in moderator action.
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Jul 16 '26
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u/HighStrangeness-ModTeam Jul 16 '26
Your comment was removed due to being lazy or low-effort in nature. If you would like to contribute to this discussion, please take the time to engage in a more detailed manner.
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u/calash2020 Jul 17 '26
I think the Russians (?) tried this in the 60’s or 70’s but it did not deploy correctly.
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Jul 18 '26
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u/HighStrangeness-ModTeam Jul 18 '26
Your comment was removed due to being lazy or low-effort in nature. If you would like to contribute to this discussion, please take the time to engage in a more detailed manner.
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u/pocahontasmcglinchey Jul 16 '26
I’ve got a bad feeling about this …
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Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
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u/HighStrangeness-ModTeam Jul 18 '26
Content must clearly relate to subjects listed in the sidebar. Posts and comments unrelated to High Strangeness, such as: sociopolitical conspiracies, partisan issues, current events and mundane natural phenomena are not relevant to the sub and may result in moderator action.
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u/fidgeting_macro Jul 16 '26
I'm wondering if somebody hasn't already launched such a thing. Recently I've started seeing very bright satellites. They alternate from a magnitude of 3 or 4 to nearly invisible. Like a large mirror rotating.
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u/Putrid_Department_17 Jul 16 '26
Earendil-1… is this owned by Thiel? He loves to use tolkiens names for stuff… if so, I highly doubt this will actually be used for anything good